REUTERS
A group of investors in Ukraine’s shortest-dated bonds stepped up pressure on Franklin Templeton to adjust the terms of an $18 billion restructuring agreement they argue is biased against them, saying they have the power to block the deal, Bloomberg reports.
The question is how hard they are willing to negotiate, and are they willing to bring the entire deal down for the sake of a fairer deal," Tim Ash, the head of Europe, Middle East and Africa emerging-markets credit strategy at Nomura Holdings Inc. in London, said Thursday, according to Bloomberg.
Holders of the $500 million Ukraine’s Eurobonds due on September 23 claim they have a so-called blocking stake in the security, Shearman & Sterling LLP, the law firm representing them, said on Thursday.
That means they own the 25% needed to potentially thwart a vote on the agreement finalized last month with a committee of some of Ukraine’s biggest bondholders.
Read alsoUkraine vs Creditors. Who wins?The dissenting investors argue the distribution isn’t fair to the owners of notes due next week and October 13 since their investments are delayed for more years than everyone else. A spokesman for the main four-member creditor committee, led by Franklin Templeton, declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg on Thursday.
As UNIAN reported ealier, theVerkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the government-proposed legislative package on sovereign debt restructuring, which has been agreed with the ad hoc creditors’ committee this August.